Norwood resident Alfred Joyce in his reminiscences give some insight into tensions of early settlement. Gold Rush Era The first gold discoveries occurred in 1854 or 1855. By June 1855, newspapers regarded "Chinaman's Flat" as a well-known site for prospectors and used "the head of Chinaman's Flat" to describe an area to the west of the current Maryborough-Bowenvale-Timor Road about 5 km from modern Maryborough. This name came from the groups of Chinese immigrants largely from Guangdong Province in southern China who made up a large proportion of the early gold seekers. Butcher's Bridge and Cox Town The track into the Maryborough area became well-established during the next twelve months. Towards the end of 1856, a shorter route between Maryborough and Dunolly was enabled by a young entrepreneur named Cox Butcher who built a basic bridge and an accompanying inn, called The Bridge, at the nearby Bet Bet Creek crossing, close to where a small number of water carriers and gold seekers were living. That location became known as Butcher's Bridge and then Cox Town, gradually shifting towards the latter. In October 1856, a major rush to a particular point on the Chinaman's Flat Lead began, resulting in the discovery of a gold-bearing quartz reef later named the Leviathan. Urban areas grew along both sides of the Lead. On the west side, there was a Primitive Methodist Church, a post office named Chinaman's Flat, a reading room, and at least one private school. The urban settlement on the east side, which seems to have also been called Chinaman's Flat, spread along the main track from Maryborough to Dunolly via Cox Town, and was probably more commercial. In 1863, following more than a year of agitation and petitioning by the community, a government-regulated school named Chinaman's Flat opened in the western community, eventually in a solid-brick building on what is now Denyer's Road. Establishment of Timor and Decline of Chinaman's Flat By 1857, the Maryborough & Dunolly Advertiser was predicting that Cox Town would eventually become a permanent creek-crossing settlement. By October 1861, the Tullaroop Road Board and the Bet Bet Road Board, whose shared boundary was the Bet Bet Creek, were in negotiations, encouraged by letters to the Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser, to replace Cox Butcher's bridge with a more solid one with side rails. On 20 August 1866, a surveyed town north of what is now Bet Bet Creek